Skye Gyngell obituary

Influential Michelin-starred chef who championed using local ingredients and developed a simple, elegant style of cooking

The pioneering chef Skye Gyngell, who has died of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare skin cancer, aged 62, was the first Australian woman to win a Michelin star, an early supporter of the slow food movement, and a champion of charities such as StreetSmart and the Felix Project.

Gyngell was a quiet radical. She came to public attention when she opened the Petersham Nurseries Café in south-west London in 2004. Until that point, she had been honing her own distinctive cooking personality that emphasised the quality of ingredients and the simplicity of their treatment and presentation. Her dishes were light, graceful and deceptively simple, but were founded on a serious understanding of how flavours and textures worked together, sometimes in surprising ways.